My suggestion would actually be to get a 45+ starter kit and get African cichlids. I used to breed them, they come in a variety of colours (I especially love the Lake Malawi cichlids), the water in Calgary is fantastic for them, not sure if it's still the same but Calgary water used to have a pH of around 8.0, which makes the water a little hard for quite a few species of fish.
The Lake Malawi cichlids also have a ton of very interesting habits, things like digging out nests in the substrate, their breeding habits, and just their living habits (Lake Malawi has a ton of caves and other rocky structures). Personally they are my favourite types of fish.
If you are set on a 20 Gallon tank I'd suggest getting a bunch of community fish, personally I like to pick a spot in the world and build a tank towards that environment so that you can cater the tank to the needs of the fish. You've gotta be careful though, as I said earlier Calgary water is a bit hard, so you're going to want to get a pH buffer to lower that pH to around 7.
If you've got any specific questions just go ahead and ask.
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